"I won't yield!" she said to herself.
And then she looked at the brigand beside her, and something within her, that seemed to be the core of her womanhood, longed intensely to yield.
She had wished to get rid of Marie. Quite without prompting she had decided that very morning to send Marie away. Then how unreasonable it would be to refuse to do it just because he, too, wished the girl to go!
"Why do you want her to go?" she asked slowly, with her eyes upon him. "How can it matter to you whether my maid goes or stays?"
He only looked at her, opened his eyes widely, and laughed. He took another cigarette, lit it, and laughed again quietly, but with surely a real enjoyment of her pretence of ignorance, of her transparent hypocrisy. Nevertheless, she persisted.
"I can't see what such a thing can possibly have to do with you, or why it should interest you at all."
"I will find you a better maid."
"Hamza--perhaps?" she said.
"And why not Hamza?"
He looked at her, and was silent. And again she felt a sensation of fear. There was something deadly about the praying donkey-boy.
"When is that girl going?"
Mrs. Armine opened her lips to say, "She is not going at all." They said: "I intend to get rid of her within the next few days. I always intended to get rid of her."
"Yes?"
"She isn't really a good maid. She doesn't understand my ways."
"Or she understands them too well," said Baroudi calmly, "When she is gone, I shall burn the alum upon the coals and give it to be eaten by a dog that is black. That girl has the evil eye."